Francis appeals to Synod Fathers to come up with a series of 'concrete pastoral proposals'

Pope Francis greets people at St. Peter's Square on the morning of Wednesday Oct. 3. (Photo by Alessandro di Meo/Epa/Efe/MaxPPP)

Pope Francis opened the Synod on the theme 'Young People in Rome with a Mass at St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday Oct. 3.

The ceremony took place almost two years to the day after the pope first announced the Synod and following intense preparations including a broad worldwide consultation process involving many young people. The first discussion followed in the afternoon.

The Synod needs to “broaden our horizons, expand our hearts and transform those frames of mind that today paralyze, separate and alienate us from young people, leaving them exposed to stormy seas, orphans without a faith community that should sustain them, orphans devoid of a sense of direction and meaning in life,” the pope said by way of introduction.

Clearly, he wanted the Synod to continue along the path of Church renewal that he has fostered since the beginning of his pontificate.

Pope Francis also appealed for a break with “conformism” based on an attitude he summarized as “it’s always been done like this.”

Exhorting Synod Fathers to “look directly into the eyes of young people and see their situations,” he warned against “the temptation of falling into moralistic or elitist postures, and it protects us from the lure of abstract ideologies that never touch the realities of our people.”

Abandon “preconceptions and stereotypes”

He said he hoped that for the next three weeks the 267 Synod Fathers and other invitees would display “a creative dedication, a dynamism which is intelligent, enthusiastic and full of hope” with the clear objective of accompanying young people.

“They ask us not to leave them alone in the hands of so many peddlers of death who oppress their lives and darken their vision,” the pope said.

“Synod Fathers, the Church looks to you with confidence and love,” he told the participants before greeting them personally at the end of Mass.

He repeated this message in the Synod Hall later that afternoon at the opening of the first discussion session.

He began here by thanking young people for “having wagered that it is worth the effort to feel part of the Church or to enter into dialogue with her” and “worth the effort to hold onto the boat of the Church which, despite the world’s cruel storms, continues to offer shelter and hospitality to everyone.”

Calling on participants to “speak frankly” and to abandon “prejudice and stereotypes,” he requested them to make the Synod “an exercise in dialogue, first of all between those participating” without allowing themselves to be tempted by “prophets of doom.”

'Meeting between generations can be extremely fruitful'

“Relations across generations are a terrain in which prejudice and stereotypes take root with proverbial ease,” the pope noted. This is more true for the old than for the young, he said.

He therefore requested the older generation to “decisively overcome the scourge of clericalism,” which is “a perversion and the root of many evils in the Church.”

But he also exhorted young people “to cure the virus of self-sufficiency and hasty conclusions.”

“To shun and reject everything handed down across the ages brings only a dangerous disorientation that sadly threatens our humanity,” Pope Francis warned, “it brings a disillusionment which has invaded the hearts of whole generations.”

Despite these dangers, he said he hoped that “the meeting between generations could be extremely fruitful” and that the Synod would become “a sign of a Church that really listens, that allows herself to be questioned by the experiences of those she meets, and who does not always have a ready-made answer.”

Make 'concrete pastoral proposals'

In conclusion, the pope called on the Synod to “spend time with the future,” which is not, he insisted, “a threat to be feared” but a time “to experience communion with the Lord, with our brothers and sisters, and with the whole of creation.

He particularly appealed to participants not to draft a final document of a kind that “generally is only read by a few and criticized by many” but rather to make “concrete pastoral proposals.”

The objective of the Synod is “to plant dreams, draw forth prophecies and visions, allow hope to flourish, inspire trust, bind up wounds, weave together relationships, awaken a dawn of hope, learn from one another, and create a bright resourcefulness that will enlighten minds, warm hearts, give strength to our hands, and inspire in young people – all young people, with no one excluded – a vision of the future filled with the joy of the Gospel,” Pope Francis concluded.

The Synod now has three weeks to implement this vision.

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